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The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They’re the kind of people who’d stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn’t bother to stop because they’d want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club.

Btw, has AdamB rehabilitated Cheney yet, or is he just working up to it? Lol! Santorum now a hero on DK. Surprise, surprise! Not!

More slaughter in Iraq, and as usual the keyboard commandos over at dk are still holding on to the pretense that Democrats are anti-war! I wonder can they continue this charade for another year and a half? Not in the real world, that’s for sure.

First it was kos who admitted he didn’t how how the legislative process works, now it’s atrios:

While I’m not as acquainted with the full details of the legislative process as I should be…

Oh but trust them. They know what’s best…

As for MOB, wasn’t it drinking nite in Philly tonite? Bar room talking points for the boyz. That defeatism that means bowing to the two party machine dominance certainly has nothing to do with any kind of revolution that they say they so desire.

Ah, Booboo only trots out an interest in overhauling the two-party system when he’s over here whining at me. The rest of the time it’s all about how Moses came down from fucking Sinai with “DEM” engraved on one tablet and “REP” engraved on the other.

Someone left a link to this old Civil Defense film at my place. What a hoot. Pay no attention to that pesky “radiation” stuff…as long as your house is still standing, you’re a hero – and a clean one at that! (Take note kids: this is what happens if you don’t clean your rooms. mwahahaha)

Love this comment on that site: “In the event of a nuclear exchange, the couch potatoes will be the first to go…” 🙂

When punk rock came around in the late seventies in NJ, the Greatful Dead became a target of ridicule. I luvved them around age fifteen to seventeen, but was disliked by deadheads themselves. Saw ’em at the Garden and Jerry Garcia Band at Seton Hall University gym, NJ, good show.

In retrospect they’ve got a solid catologue up until about ’75’s Blues for Allah a jazzy/middle eastearn flavored piece with akiller cover painting. The Dead will never die I was told by some southern freak, when I was hitchhiking long ago, blues for allah tatoo on his arm.

The instant the doors open, you want to push forward as hard as possible, in an effort to get onto the train without letting anybody get off. This is very important. If anybody does get off, it is legal to tackle him and drag him back on. I once watched three German tourists — this is a true anecdote — attempt to get off the northbound No. 5 Lexington Avenue IRT train at Grand Central Station during rush hour. “Getting off please!” they said, politely, from somewhere inside a car containing approximately the population of Brazil, as if they expected people to actually let them through. Instead, of course, the incoming passengers propelled the Germans, like gnats in a hurricane, away from the door, deeper and deeper into the crowd, which quickly compressed them into dense little wads of Teutonic tissue. I never did see where they actually got off. Probably they stumbled to daylight somewhere in the South Bronx, where they were sold for parts.

and here is a quote for lucid and jamfuse:

Chuck and I emerge from the subway in Lower Manhattan. This area has been hard hit by the massive wave of immigration that has threatened to rend the very fabric of society, as the city struggles desperately to cope with the social upheaval caused by the huge and unprecedented influx of a group that has, for better or for worse, permanently altered the nature of New York: young urban professionals. They began arriving by the thousands in the 1970s, packed two and sometimes three per BMW sedan, severely straining the city’s already-overcrowded gourmet-ice cream facilities. Soon they were taking over entire neighborhoods, where longtime residents watched in despair as useful businesses such as bars were replaced by precious little restaurants with names like The Whittling Fig.

Well, the thing about the teletubbies is THEY ARE NOT HUMAN! They are supposed to be creatures of some kind. NOT HUMAN! They have antennas on their heads and TVs in their stomachs. NOT HUMAN! They have no gonads of any sort and are only vaguely male or female. Does it really matter what sexuality a NON-HUMAN character has? Only to demented religious freaks.

Having said that, Tinky Winky does appear to be girly. Much is made about the purse, but nobody ever mentions the episode in which he wears a pink tutu.

But the inanity of the Tubbies pales in comparison with that of the Boobahs. This is hilarious:

The Democrats didn’t fight for their own true election results in 2000 or in 2004, so why should we expect them to impeach an illegitimate Administration that has violated the U.S. Constitution and international law, lied to the American people, and sent our young men and women into harm’s way?

In fact, the Democrats have just now made themselves complicit in impeachable crimes of the Bush Administration. On March 17, my birthday, at the antiwar protest at the Pentagon, I declared that by voting to fund George Bush’s wars, the Democrats had become explicitly complicit in war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace.

The American people voted for peace in last November’s election. And they voted for justice. We didn’t get peace and we don’t have justice.

What about a livable wage for America’s workers?

What about the right of return for Katrina survivors?

What about repealing the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, and the Military Tribunals Act?

Why is impeachment “off the table”?

How can the Pentagon “lose” 2.3 trillion dollars!

Why can’t we get that money back for jobs, health care, education, and our veterans?

One year to the day before he was murdered Dr. King, under tremendous pressure from other blacks and “civil rights leaders” to tone down his antiwar rhetoric, responded thusly:

“For those who say to me, ‘stick to civil rights,’ I have another answer. And that is, that I’ve fought too long and too hard now, against segregated public accommodations to end up segregating my moral concerns. I’m not gonna do that. But others can do what they want to do. That’s their business. If other civil rights leaders, for various reasons, refuse or can’t take a stand or have to go along with the Administration, that’s their business. But I must say tonight, that I know that justice is indivisible: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
[snip]

Meanwhile the CEO of Conocophillips is on the Today show. Telling lies.

I love the Teletubbies… partly becuase most American fare for very small children (18 mos – 5) is too manic. Mr Rogers and Captain Kangaroo all had an emphasis on appropriate soothing. Not enforced numbness but an excellent pull back from the frantic.

I mean compare that with soem of the bullshit American crap on show, some of which is getting monies from NCLB. That “unfunded” mandate.

Obama’s plan is important first for what it is not. Like the other top Democratic presidential contenders, he rejects the left’s growing support for a government-run, single-payer healthcare system. Instead, he proposes to reinforce the existing system, under which the vast majority of Americans receive coverage either through their employers or through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

To cover most (but not all) of the roughly 45 million Americans without health insurance, Obama advances ideas that split the bill between individuals, government and business. His first step would be to require parents to insure their children. Then he proposes to expand eligibility for government programs for the poor and to offer subsidies to help other uninsured individuals buy coverage through a new, nationwide purchasing pool modeled on the insurance available to federal employees. Finally, Obama would require all but the smallest employers to provide insurance for workers or else pay about 6% of their payroll to help government fund the cost of covering those employees.

Instead, he proposes to reinforce the existing system, under which the vast majority of Americans receive coverage either through their employers or through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Sweet Jesus. Sounds not unlike compassionate conservatism. I see there no mention of or attempt to analyse why the US healthcare delivery system is the most expensive and with the worst outcomes of all the developed countries.

To add to the looming horror of the coming election, Fred Thompson intends to announce on July 4th.

I think the ‘Obama plan’ sounds like the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard. First there’s this gem:

“His first step would be to require parents to insure their children.”

And how, exactly, does he propose to do this? Force a lower middle income to cough up $400-$500 a month that they don’t have or throw them in jail? Penalize them on their taxes? Geesh.

And exactly how cheap is this “nationwide purchasing pool modeled on the insurance available to federal employees” going to be? And if it is cheap enough to cover those who presently can’t afford insurance, why isn’t it available to everyone?

And finally – Obama – any business would take the 6% payroll tax penalty to have the federal government take care of their health insurance because health insurance routinely costs businesses about 9%-12% of gross payroll for median wage jobs.

No language about controlling pharmaceutical costs. No language about preventative medicine. In fact, it’s completely nonsensical.

My guess, to blame Americans. (And who else are we “blaming”? IRAQIS!)

Look we all tried, you shiftless bootstrapless numbskulls.

It is what I see in ALL the plans. ALL OF THEM.

No one running I can stand. I hear Fred Thompson heading on in to the horse corral. Good! Anybody who blows the line up of 18 ravenous shits to hell, fine with me. I hope Bloomberga nd Hagel come on in too.

LOL I see Obama as the very essence of compassionate conservatism. WIth a black face. Which like everything else in America is a selling point.

Worse, there are Democrats around happy to sell that Republicans willing to vote outside their party, are looking at him as a “Reagan”. Others lauding Edwards as the greatest thing since the ringing oratory of the 60s. Not likely.

And how, exactly, does he propose to do this? Force a lower middle income to cough up $400-$500 a month that they don’t have or throw them in jail? Penalize them on their taxes? Geesh.

I expect that the eventual goal is denial of service.

Well at least it will get his ass off of Law and Order

He’s a horrible actor and a worse senator but I’m afraid that even with Thompson gone L&O has become a r-w spin machine. The writers seem devoted to pleasing the Federalist Society. They have West Winged it.

the children insurance scam in this country is the proof this country never plans to do anything. All children birth to 18 should be covered, oeriod. And not the state by state hodge podge that is going on.

As I understand it, under the current system for “working poor” it costs about 15 per child, when available, to get SChIP coverage.

The mother in TX (who hanged herself and duaghters) would have had to pay 60 a month for coverage if she earned too much to be on state Medicaid.

Michael Moriarity, trained in the legitimate theatre, was right to leave all those years ago. He left for principal, over issues over the depiction of violence (iirc). As in, it is censorship and it would move to the news. It surely did.

Yes, so we have nothing to lose by supporting a third party candidate should one emerge ….

I’m sure all Vags in the SF area will be attending the Yrly kos fundraiser …. funny to see Buhdydharma’s name on the FP considering that the kos thugs attempted to run him off the board last fall. Nor did kos ever come to his defense, not that he needed it.

I’ll be there.

The Future of Politics is Here, and You’re Invited!

Be the first on your server to party with progressive bloggers! Get crazy with your blue state self and help us raise money for the second annual YearlyKos Convention (YKC 07).

well I see Kid Oakland name too. If anyone else remembers his diary, post FP “annonymous DNCer in the know” when Kos helpfully frontpaged a rather too racist slam on Donna Brazile (I don’t have to like her to know wrong when I see it) and later he backed off his extravagant claims that he knew who pulled Kos’ strings… apologised (as they all do when they crawl back) and then I watched DhinMI and Del Dem bloody him but good. It was the most blatant thugdom I have seen there. They beat him til he admitted he would “be n othing without kos”.

hear the refrain?

They love to take it. There has to be a perceived pay off.

And, as I recall as I saw it, kid O sucked up to DH to be elevated to the FP. Right at the same time he tried to involve me in an email exchange.

He also did the minor MB walk on routine, smarmy explanations for wimmens. And others.

Interesting regarding KO …. I do remember reading that he quit the FP. The problem seems to be that people see things they know are wrong, take a stand, but then back down for some reason. And kos uses the ‘liberals’ when he needs them. Maybe it’s an ego thing – or, they think they can do more good by staying.

I see MB linked to TL today also …. maybe it’s time to bring armando back into the fold also. Gearing up to collect as much money as they can during the presidential election season. It could be their last gasp as anyone observing the last six years can see, these are not the people who will change anything. But maybe they can squeeze one more expensive failure out of it.

Agreed on L&A writing – it’s still addictive as hell though. I think I watch it now because I hate it so much.

I think my favorite era was the first few Waterson years w/ Briscoe and Curtis & the first two ADA’s [Lowell & Hennesy]. It’s gone to hell since Carey Lowell left [the last anti-death penalty character, though Steven Hill was still marginally so]. I think my favorite episode was the season finale where it starts with the first execution in NY since the reinstatement of the death penalty and then everything in the episode spirals worse throughout the day, culminating with the death of Claire Kincaid…

Waterson’s politics are firghtening. What’s funnier is that he’s also profoundly stupid. I saw him on celebrity Jeapordy once with Carey Lowell and Jerry Orbach. He kept buzzing in and missing extremely simple questions [I think he ended up in negative numbers at the end]. Lowell mopped up.

I guess Jeapordy isn’t really a measure of intelligence, but the stuff this guy was missing… he would have lost ‘elementary school Jeapordy’.

I watch SVU for some god awful reason & the original [much to the chagrin of my roomates], but can’t handle Criminal Intent. Maybe it’s just that I’ve never really liked Vince D’Onofrio’s acting schtick.

I remembered the name, Bibi Neuwirth… the writing and acting ws always really bad on the courtroom version.

I amdit I watch SVU and also CI…. almost any policier

The writing on all has seriously deteriorated tho. Down the tubes. But usually after the first couple of years it happens.

SO few crime or other dramas on, so I don’t watch much. I DID love an earlier one that died, Boomtown set in LA. Couple or more years ago. I thought they tried a little for a slightly more ocmplex take. And some stylish scenes.

I gave up on L&O when they got the Evil Lizard Woman to be Sam’s sidekick. I don’t know her name, but she was Southern and just radiated smugness. Feh. A total reptile, and not in a good way.

Moriarity has some serious mental problems (or so I heard), but it never seemed to hurt his skills as an actor. I actually sat through one of those awful killer-mutant-baby movies once just to see him thrash around in Army fatigues while gasping, “I feel like a lobster in a damn fish tank !!” Those were the days.

I am sad that I cannot fund a YVags gathering for us (Miss D, come back !). Though if I sell every picture I ever made in the next month, we might still pull it off. Somebody get Bowers on the phone. Or MB. I spent good money getting my trenchcoat collection dry-cleaned and I hate the thought of all my efforts being wasted.

well after he left L&O, Moriarity went on an alcoholic binge period. Put on a lot f weight. Went to Europe for a while, iirc… I think he tried to come back do some work in Canada, he was absolutely blackballed in the LA TV industry, from what I read.

Bebe… she lives down the hall from my boss… never liked her from Cheers days on.

I tend to stay away from ‘network shows’ in general these days. I’ve been pretty busy, but when I do sit down to have a mindless night of TV, I usually gravitate towards terrible B movies I’ve seen multiple times or L&O reruns on TNT & USA [unless of course I’m in a Trek mood]… something comforting about the inanity during these dark times.

catnip, do up a few tea cozies, too. Tea goes great with the Parisian macaroons. Though I’ll stick to guzzling espressos. I’d rather have an espresso machine than a chocolate fountain any day of the week.

Miss X, you’re talking about Angie Harmon as ‘Abbie Charmichael’. She was awful. I remember her character once complained about women using abortion as birth control… she was the end of any remotely good writing about pretty much anything on the show.

he dares question why a site devoted to “electing democrats” would post ads for ann coulter who by last check, works against electing democrats. the response from the dk faithful is typical: delete! and endless pix of ponies and kittens, the high wit of the kossack.

B-b-b-b-b-ut, The Hill says Netroots FURIOUS at Dems. Surely the pantomime is real. It must be. wah.

Blogosphere Fury at Dems on Iraq Vote

By Jonathan E. Kaplan
The Hill

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Furious that congressional Democratic leaders did not fight harder to pass a supplemental spending bill with a timeline to end the war in Iraq and tougher benchmarks, liberal online activists have ripped party leaders and threatened to halt contributions to Democratic lawmakers.

The power of the so-called netroots – liberal activists who rally likeminded supporters on the Internet – is not clear. They have a loud voice and they have the capacity to raise money quickly for a candidate they favor, but they so far have been unable to push House and Senate Democratic leaders on a range of issues, including ending the war in Iraq.
[snip]

At my age, catnip, I’m going to need one of those Preppie “boy-cut” suits. No ruffles, please. A couple of cute little anchors or whales a la’ Bush I would be neat, though.

Well, who knows ? Maybe people really will stay mad this time. It depends largely on how bad a Right-wing boogeyman can be crafted to represent the GOP and on whether or not anyone wants to step in on the Left and make a serious effort at spoiling the party.

On Green Commons, the locals seem very divided on the spoiler issue but I’m all in favor of embracing it. Spoilerism is a central tenet of the STFU Party. Take note. Our motto is It All Stank Before We Got Here.

If online is any indication, I can’t see the national GP embracing McKinney. Too much diffidence, too much waffling, too much eagerness to please– on the Greens’ part. No wonder we ended up with Cobb last time out.

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.’.

That’s it in a nutshell. Who wouldn’t want to co-sponsor that? What Democrat wouldn’t want to co-sponsor it? What woman wouldn’t want to?

The answer apparently includes Democrats Claire McCaskill of Missouri (darling of the netroots), Mary Landrieu, of Louisiana, Blanche Lincoln, of Arkansas, and Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota. Oh by the way, none of the five Republican women in the Senate are behind the legislation, either. [snip]

as a side note, when it [re-introducting the ERA] came up for discussion a few weeks ago, it was mentioned on a tiny email list I am on (all of 4, two women and two men) the men thought it ws great. The two women knew the day had long since passed, no hope, no political partner (not even one that could be shoved awake as there is no obstreperous demanding movement in the nation, nothing big enough) we have been left to struggle for crumbs. Much less a handful of decent words.

damnit — my eyes are diallated and even with my new nifty +1 reading glasses, i can barely see shit!

First time to the eye doc in 15+ years…still have 20/20 vision, and really healthy eyes, they’re just again. Sigh. My son and his friend said that they looked good (my very first pair of glasses) and told me I don’t look a day over 30….aren’t they just the sweetest?!

“It wasn’t an offer,” she said hotly. “It was an ultimatum. Do as he says, or close down. And, Oliver, for God’s sake, all those not-so-subtle threats and hints about national security and so on — can’t you see where that would lead?”

“Well, I think I can see it more clearly than you can. If you said no, they wouldn’t close this place down. They’d take it over. If they’re as interested as he says, they’ll want it to carry on. But only on their terms.”defense, for God’s sake. They want to find new ways of killing people. And you heard what he said about consciousness: he wants to manipulate it. I’m not going to get mixed up in that, Oliver, never.”

“They’ll do it anyway, and you’ll be out a job. If you stay, you might be able to influence it in a better direction. And you’d still have your hands on the work! You’d still be involved!” – His Dark Materials, pg 476

The most insidious and common corruption available … it’s going to happen anyway, BUT MAYBE YOU CAN MAKE IT LESS DAMAGING. Ego and ideals in a deadly alchemy, and soon you’re hanging yourself from the Judas Tree or you’ve become one of the Pharisees. Neither end is good.

Re Law & Order and Michael Moriarty, he claimed he left the show because the producers were caving in to censorship demands from Janet Reno. The production people tell a different story. Moriarty is one strange individual, who’s been known to go on serious benders from time to time, and indulge in extremely weird behavior (sometimes onstage, as in his Richard III in the early 1980s, possibly the worst performance of that role ever). I’ve been watching the show for a long time (I have my guilty pleasures), and I detect no change with regards to the amount of violence portrayed, which was supposedly what Reno was trying to clamp down on. Indeed, given what’s usually on the SVU spinoff, the subject matter has become even more gruesome over the years.

Like the collaborating Vichy government in France under the Nazis, America will surrender to laws and ideologies that contradict the American Constitution and the most simple Human Rights. The Supreme Court took a once individually free nation and corrupted it by the lie of Science that fetuses are, in their first two trimesters, no more than egg yolk. Ultimately, our American Intellectual Supremacists bought the “Population Problem,” in the same way Europe fell under the thrall of the so-called “Jewish Problem.”

* * *

Islam, in and of itself, however, is an Allah-worshipping, Kamikaze Nation, exactly like pre-World War II Imperial Japan. Its Bible, the Koran, can be read like Hitler’s Mein Kampf. It demands to rule the entire human race. Islam’s only idea of freedom of religion is the freedom of Islam to rule everything. Islamic Political Parties should be no more trusted than neo-Nazi, White Supremacists and David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan have been trusted. Tragically, the only language Islam, like Hirohito’s Japan, understands is violence. The measures Harry Truman took to end the war with Japan may prove tragically necessary with Islam.

As you can see from that link, he plans to run for President next year, in which case we get to see which generation of L&O performers is the biggest draw with the voting public. Of course, since he’s obtained Canadian citizenship, there might be some Constitutional problem with his prospective run.

“But their terms would be … I mean, defense, for God’s sake. They want to find new ways of killing people. And you heard what he said about consciousness: he wants to manipulate it. I’m not going to get mixed up in that, Oliver, never.”

Re Law & Order and Michael Moriarty, he claimed he left the show because the producers were caving in to censorship demands from Janet Reno. The production people tell a different story. Moriarty is one strange individual, who’s been known to go on serious benders from time to time, and indulge in extremely weird behavior (sometimes onstage, as in his Richard III in the early 1980s, possibly the worst performance of that role ever). I’ve been watching the show for a long time (I have my guilty pleasures), and I detect no change with regards to the amount of violence portrayed, which was supposedly what Reno was trying to clamp down on. Indeed, given what’s usually on the SVU spinoff, the subject matter has become even more gruesome over the years.

Like the collaborating Vichy government in France under the Nazis, America will surrender to laws and ideologies that contradict the American Constitution and the most simple Human Rights. The Supreme Court took a once individually free nation and corrupted it by the lie of Science that fetuses are, in their first two trimesters, no more than egg yolk. Ultimately, our American Intellectual Supremacists bought the “Population Problem,” in the same way Europe fell under the thrall of the so-called “Jewish Problem.”

* * *

Islam, in and of itself, however, is an Allah-worshipping, Kamikaze Nation, exactly like pre-World War II Imperial Japan. Its Bible, the Koran, can be read like Hitler’s Mein Kampf. It demands to rule the entire human race. Islam’s only idea of freedom of religion is the freedom of Islam to rule everything. Islamic Political Parties should be no more trusted than neo-Nazi, White Supremacists and David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan have been trusted. Tragically, the only language Islam, like Hirohito’s Japan, understands is violence. The measures Harry Truman took to end the war with Japan may prove tragically necessary with Islam.

As you can see from that link, he plans to run for President next year, in which case we get to see which generation of L&O performers is the biggest draw with the voting public. Of course, since he’s obtained Canadian citizenship, there might be some Constitutional problem with his prospective run.

Lucid, I can’t wait to see the movement to revoke women’s suffrage take hold. Millions of feminists will rally all over the blogosphere to declare that the DP is trying its best. We can’t just self-indulgently abandon it while all those babies are dying in Africa and besides, the DP is still better than the GOP.

Give it about six or seven years. I was writing on the Ms. Boards in ’01 that feminists who were using SCOTUS to flog straying women back into the fold were poorly informed and fools. That the undermining of reproductive rights would only accelerate as long as women were willing to overlook or whitewash the DP’s part in it. Almost nobody had anything to say other than the usual baiting insults. They can insult stragglers but forgive again and again powerful men and the occasional Values Maid who kicks them in the teeth. I think we’ve established at this point that they really have no breaking point, or “bottom line,” as Maia put it on Alas.

Well Melrath and Lange constantly poll the Dkos sludge fest known as commenters. Only utter fools have not figured out what is going on.

They can look thru all my diaries.

Dh started running over to monitor my few diaries. usually with a court jester in tow. My diaries were almost all on the war but for the last. Easy to read, whomever cares, the link is in the banned bumpersticker.

Well removal of balls is an orchectomy. They seem adept at that over there. Self administered.

Wait ! I just had a brainstorm ! Women convicted of slaughtering the Sacred Fetus will be declared lifetime felons and have their right to vote revoked ! Fuck. I’m a genius. Get Obama on the phone, Brinn– or somebody. Quick !!

I like procedurals too, and have a really soft spot for the English ones. If you get a chance, check out Life on Mars, which is a REALLY interesting twist on the genre. I’m a big sucker for “Prime Suspect” and “Cracker”. “Wire in the Blood” is quite good too, but even more disturbing than “Cracker” sometimes was, so I can only take an ep of it from time to time.

“Boomtown” was a great show … it’s too bad the network bailed on it. Of all the “L&O’s”, I probably like “SVU” the best, if only for my brief glimpses of the brilliant Munch … though he was even better on the best American procedural ever, “Homicide, Life on the Streets”.

Ther was also a great one, pulled 10 or so years ago, Eazy Street, set in a undetermined Eastern Seabord city, likely in NJ, crumbling away, tough racial politics.
It is where Rod Steiger developed the character that later was mushed and smushed on Sopranos.

It was spectacular. Cinematic on the small screen. I think it did not even make it 13 episodes.

I adored Cracker… and Iloved the British one of the ME in the green green grass of little English villages (on PBS for a couple seasons). Very smart. And watered down to be some dumb show here, iirc.

Well the best of all of them – by a dinosaur’s footprint – is HBO’s “The Wire”. If you haven’t seen it, netflick the whole 5 seasons. The writing is the best of any serial I’ve any seen on TV of any sort. Character development is fantastic – the intersecting plotlines of crime, politics, poverty, education, personal life… I didn’t start watching until the 4th season and it blew me away. The 5th season was even better. Now I’m working back up from the 1st season, right now on episode 5 of the 2nd.

I admit I got a happy feeling when I heard about the ERA. Pavlovian response … the higher brain functions work hard to bring me back to reality fairly quickly, and I can always check in here to get my feet back on the ground.

CNN is pushing the White House line that Iraq will be the Korea of the Middle East, or some latest bullshit. Finally admitting that we’re not going anywhere, but sheesh …

Also, they just announced a Chinook got shot down in Afghanistan, 5 reported dead (which means it’s likely more … they like to let the mass casualites dribble out over a couple of days).

The Shield is amazing (Forest Whitaker’s arc was just wonderful) , and “The Wire” is incredible … many of the same folks who did “Homicide …”, IIRC. Can’t wait for the last season this fall. (PS … I think there have only been four seasons so far … fifth and last coming later this year, focusing on the media). Slate did a great running discussion on the show during last season. Last season’s arc about the four teenaged boys was heartbreaking, and ‘Snoop’ was one of the scariest amoral villains ever on a TV show.

MitM – you’re right – only four seasons… I guess I can take season 3 off my netflix list. Although I might have missed the first few episodes of that season.

One thing I like about it is that because it is on HBO, it can be more real – no censoring out the language or the sex. The season 3 drug stuff was amazing – with Hampsterdam, etc. They were really able to address the reality of addiction well, because nothing was off limits.

I thought Season 3 was brilliant, and well worth watching again. Season 2 was the weakest for me … felt a little scattered, but still some good stuff, and important character developments, especially for Jimmy.

I am the one, Orgasmatron, the outstretched grasping hand
My image is of agony, my servants rape the land
Obsequious and arrogant, clandestine and vain
Two thousand years of misery, of torture in my nameHypocrisy made paramount, paranoia the law
My name is called religion, sadistic, sacred whore

I twist the truth, I rule the world, my crown is called deceit
I am the emperor of lies, you grovel at my feet
I rob you and I slaughter you, your downfall is my gain
And still you play the sycophant and revel in you painAnd all my promises are lies, all my love is hate
I am the politician, and I decide your fate

I march before a martyred world, an army for the fight
I speak of great heroic deeds, of victory and might
I hold a banner drenched in blood, I urge you to be brave
I lead you to your destiny, I lead you to your graveYour bones will build my palaces,
your eyes will stud my crown
For I am Mars, the god of war, and I will cut you down.

just joking, I haven’t really watched a television machine in years so I dunno what these mutants look like; but I suspect a large segment of these govt sleazebags are at least switch hitters, judging by their appearance and mannerisms. Pure speculation, yet I aver hanging out in and around the dregs of nyc culture (“sex, drugs rock’n’roll”, etc.) for fifteen years, simultaneously working in the graphic design industry, gives one pretty good gai-dar.

Mitt Romney’s the new Wes Clark. He’s good looking because all the idiots say he is. I’m suprised Plutonium Page hasn’t front paged one of her characteristically atrocious pieces of writing about how ‘dreamy’ Mitt is. He’s Mormon and he promises to veto everything too!

House is good, if only for Hugh Laurie, on whom I’ve had a mild crush since his Fry and Laurie days. It’s nice to see him getting such acclaim nowadays.

Otherwise I only watch old TV series, mostly from the 1960s and early ’70s. I used to like Homicide, in its first couple of seasons.

Michael Moriarty has always given me the creeps. There’s something strange about his blank expression. He looks like he could rip his face off and reveal himself as a lizard alien. I’m not surprised he’s a pro-lifer.

So.

One of the participants in the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville was a man named Peter Tefft. He was outed by the Twitter group "Yes, You're Racist," which had been posting screenshots of participants in an effort to expose them. His father, Pearce Tefft, has come out and publicly denounced his white supremacist son in an open letter […]

Heather Heyer is the latest casualty in a number of deaths at the hands of white nationalists. Foreign Policy recently published an FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin that concluded white supremacist groups were "responsible for 49 homicides in 26 attacks from 2000 to 2016...more than any other domestic extremist movement." Despite th […]

As President Trump faces growing outrage over his response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, we bring you an exclusive: an interview with the great-great-grandsons of Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. At least 1,500 symbols of the Confederacy can be found in public spaces across the country. But now a number of the monu […]

In a wide ranging discussion, Nina Turner and Paul Jay focus on the role of Trump, the GOP, corporate Democrats and corporate media in perpetuating systemic racism; they also address whether Nazi's should have a right to organize public rallies

Ecuador's former president Rafael Correa is accusing recently elected president Lenin Moreno of moving the country to the right, using corruption accusations against Vice-President and Correa friend Jorge Glas as cover. TRNN's Greg Wilpert reports

BRIDGEWATER, N.J./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Thursday decried the removal of monuments to the pro-slavery Civil War Confederacy, echoing white nationalists and drawing stinging rebukes from fellow Republicans in a controversy that has inflamed racial tensions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has stepped up his attacks on Republican senators, an approach he may regret if he is someday impeached and the Senate has to weigh charges against him stemming from an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has abandoned plans to create an infrastructure advisory council, the White House said on Thursday, the day after two other advisory groups were dismantled over the furor caused by Trump's remarks on white supremacists.

(Reuters) - Wisconsin's Republican-controlled state Assembly voted 59-30 on Thursday to approve a bill that paves the way for a $3 billion incentives package for a proposed liquid-crystal display plant by Taiwan's Foxconn.

Media

from Howl

I'm with you in Rockland
where we wake up electrified out of the coma
by our own souls' airplanes roaring over the
roof they've come to drop angelic bombs the
hospital illuminates itself imaginary walls collapse
O skinny legions run outside O starry
spangled shock of mercy the eternal war is
here O victory forget your underwear we're free
I'm with you in Rockland
in my dreams you walk dripping from a sea-
journey on the highway across America in tears
to the door of my cottage in the Western night

October 7 1955

"a remarkable collection of angelson one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure

Democrats…

Same as goddam fucking forever.
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.